Dave_McCoy wrote:@ibenam I'm not sure. I'm loving it at the moment but I'd be a bit worried about a complete novice. I already know most of the chords, major, minor, 7ths, flats, sharps but I'm thinking increasingly that it'd be quite daunting to a new starter.

It's not bad at all at introducing new techniques. My advice, if you did get it, is to do every tutorial it throws at you and do them twice...at least.

It is great fun though. Loved playing Where is my Mind by the Pixies. The amp/pedal effects are spot on and make my old battered guitar sound great. Occasionaly I have to make sure it is my guitars sound coming out of the speakers. Lovely stuff.

I'm a complete noob so I will find out from saurday! I have been reading up on the basics so hopefully thay prepares me a bit. I'm ready for a steep learning curve. I'm ready to be very patient and take it real slow. Wish me luck!

If you're doing that already you're doing yourself a MAHOOSIVE favour TFM. It feels really odd at first, but stick at it- alternate picking is really key if you want to play accurately and at pace in the future.

It's going to hurt your fingers at first wobblyBob- it doesn't last more than a week or two though and your fingers toughen up. I suspect a fair amount of people try guitar and then give up in that early period because it hurts too much...

Cheers for the advice mcmothercruncher. I'm gonna break through the pain of barrier!

Speaking of the up and down picking, and does the game teach you that? Is it something that I should do all the time from the get go or is it only used in certain situations? Is it strumming or picking notes that you should alternate up and down?

@wobbly_Bob The alternate picking will help with any long line of single notes but you will have to upstrum on chords too for it to sound right. It should hopefully come as you play, the game hasn't recommended alternate picking yet.

... I did hear the cable isn't super tough, it'd be good if you can get a spare.
I've got the game cable snaking out the back of the tv and into an extension socket thingy where I plug a regular guitar cable into the other end. That way the strain is all being taken by the bog standard guitar cable.

Had a long session last night- I'm officially a "local support act" now
I still can't think fast enough when new notes I'm not expecting come up.
A niggle that surfaced last night was that, via the regular "songs" menu, you get access to all of the practice stuff to learn sections of the songs. Great, but, via the regular "journey" and gigging bit, when you load a song up (often that you haven't played before) you don't have any of that. You've just got to muddle through the song as it comes to you. Feels a bit like chucking you into the deep end needlessly. You should just always have access to the practice stuff wherever you are.

I dug my bass out this morning and, much the same- a really fun way to play.
It seems that there are bass arrangements for every guitar song there is so there's decent value for money there if you just wanted to play bass.
Not too impressed it keeps asking me to play with a pick- that's going to go down well with about 50% of bass players out there, fingers all the way for me.

I dug my bass out this morning and, much the same- a really fun way to play.
It seems that there are bass arrangements for every guitar song there is so there's decent value for money there if you just wanted to play bass.
Not too impressed it keeps asking me to play with a pick- that's going to go down well with about 50% of bass players out there, fingers all the way for me.

Wow fucking hell well done

I got to open mine up this morning and love it but as a total guitar noob I'm finding it so hard. I even have trouble finding the right string let alone pressing the right fret. Also it's hard for me to isolate the string without pressing others.

Noob question. I I opened up the thing where you practice e sliding your hand up and down. The it shows you having four fingers placed in anchor positions but my fingers all bend inward. I is that normal or I have freaky hands.

Don't worry, it's ALL going to feel weird at first. You need to tie your two hand's movements together- plucking the string with one at the same time as you fret with the other- and that takes time.

I'd even suggest just playing with the guitar away from the game for a while- since it is a game it's crying out for you to make progress but that's hard while you're still learning how to use the "controller".

The hand thing is normal- your fingers will be able to reach a bit more in future. Away from the game, you could practice one finger over each fret a bit higher up the guitar neck, where you don't have to reach so much. Perhaps your first finger at the 12th, index at the 13th, ring at the 14th, pinky at the 15th. Practice cleanly plucking once per finger and moving up 12-13-14-15 slowly. Much better to be slow but accurate at first.
If you feel you have that, move down and do the same at the 11th. Then the 10th. As you move down you'll be reaching a bit more each time ans stretching your fingers out as you go. This isn't a one session thing, but something you can work at to warm up a bit each day... good luck. Must feel like a mountain in front of you at the moment.

Not played the game yet, but I can vouch that your finger toughen up. I used to do acoustic guitar, and then electric, and it hurts for a week or so (you might get blisters) but after that it gets much easier.

Also helps to have longer nails on your right hand if you need to pluck, but keep them short on the left hand as they get in the way of the string/fret.

Ah cheers for that! That's so helpful. I'll have a go with your suggestions. I I think you are quite right that the game wants me to go fast and make progress but it's going to be very helpful practicing away from the game. I thanks again.

Yeah it's definitely a mountain before me. I was prepared for it to be really hard but it's harder than I imagined. I still luckily I'm quite stubborn and like a challenge lol

RobTheBuilder wrote:
Not played the game yet, but I can vouch that your finger toughen up. I used to do acoustic guitar, and then electric, and it hurts for a week or so (you might get blisters) but after that it gets much easier.

Also helps to have longer nails on your right hand if you need to pluck, but keep them short on the left hand as they get in the way of the string/fret.

It's been mentioned before, but have a look at probably the best resource for learning I know of- Justin Guitar. Not least because he has shed loads of beginners info and videos and whatnot. Pretty decent of him. Just try not to hold the fact that he plays with Katie Melua against him...

Cheers I have been reading that. It's a great site. I read the beginner stuff such as how to hold the guitar and pick. I think i will start the beginners lessons next. I'm going to try and use his site and rock Smith together.

Just played 2hrs of this on the bass and love it! Never really played it before but it adapted to my very low level and I felt like I could actually play the instrument.
Very fun way to learn. Fingers are numb now but hopefully that will go after a few weeks of this.

2nd day and findng it massively frustrating! I can't move between frett notes or from string to string. I just can't seem to do anything tried the slide thing again and can't make my fingers do what it wants or hit the notes. My gf tried the game and instantly did much better than me on her first go and this is my second day!